Benitez v. Llano
| Decision Date | 27 April 1976 |
| Parties | , 349 N.E.2d 876 In the Matter of Confesora BENITEZ, Appellant, v. Ana LLANO et al., Respondents. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Melvin E. Resenthal, New York City, for appellant.
Susan B. Lindenauer and Morton B. Dicker, New York City, for respondents.
The order of the Appellate Division, 47 A.D.2d 566, 365 N.Y.S.2d 1016 should be affirmed, without costs.
Due to the concurrence of circumstances described in the opinion at the Family Court and the delays, for whatever reasons, in prosecuting this custody proceeding, the infant is within months of attaining his legal maturity, and, therefore, the legal right to choose where and with whom he will live. It would be bootless and cruel to change his custody at this time. Under the circumstances the principles applicable to children of more tender years may not be blindly applied (cf. Matter of Spence-Chapin Adoption Serv. v. Polk, 29 N.Y.2d 196, 324 N.Y.S.2d 937, 274 N.E.2d 431; People ex rel. Kropp v. Shepsky, 305 N.Y. 465, 113 N.E.2d 801). The effects of the extended separation of the mother from her child these many years and his consequent attachment to his relatives who had served as foster parents are irreversible, however differently one would have wished the events to have occurred. The natural parent cannot achieve attachment to and affection from the child by legal compulsion at this late date. The law being incapable to accomplish the result by compulsion, she must seek, and ought soon to have better opportunity to achieve the result by means free of compulsion and confrontation, the common and preferred basis upon which human relations are built.
Order affirmed.
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Marriage of Allen, In re
...a nonparent. See Whitlatch v. Whitlatch, 206 Neb. 527, 293 N.W.2d 856 (1980); Bennett v. Jeffreys, supra; Benitez v. Llano, 39 N.Y.2d 758, 349 N.E.2d 876, 384 N.Y.S.2d 775 (1976); Doe v. Doe, 92 Misc.2d 184, 399 N.Y.S.2d 977 (1977). As noted in In re Aschauer, supra, 93 Wash.2d n.5 at 697-9......
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Bennett v. Jeffreys
...do not, however, dictate that the child's custody be routinely awarded to the natural parent (see Matter of Benitez v. Llano, 39 N.Y.2d 758, 759, 384 N.Y.S.2d 775, 349 N.E.2d 876). Matter of Benitez v. Llano is a particularly good example. In Benitez, there was no termination of the parenta......
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Sanjivini K., Matter of
...case could contraindicate disruption of that relationship and instead dictate an opposite result (see Matter of Benitez v. Llano, 39 N.Y.2d 758, 759, 384 N.Y.S.2d 775, 349 N.E.2d 876; Matter of Gomez v. Lozado, 40 N.Y.2d 839, 387 N.Y.S.2d 834, 356 N.E.2d 287; Matter of Goldman, 41 N.Y.2d 89......
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